A toothbrush is used to clean the teeth by removing plaque and debris from the tooth surfaces. Conventional toothbrushes having a flat bristle trim are limited in their ability to conform to the curvature of the teeth, to penetrate into the interproximal areas between the teeth, to sweep away the plaque and debris, and to clean along the gum line. Additionally, such toothbrushes have a limited ability to retain dentifrice for cleaning the teeth. During the brushing process, the dentifrice typically slips through the tufts of bristles and away from the contact between the bristles and the teeth. As a result, the dentifrice is often spread around the mouth, rather than being concentrated on the contact of the bristles with the teeth. Therefore, the efficiency of the cleaning process is reduced.
While substantial efforts have been made to modify the cleaning elements of toothbrushes to improve the efficiency of the oral cleaning process, the industry continues to pursue arrangements of cleaning elements that will improve upon the existing technology.
A number of attempts have been made to create flexible toothbrush heads that provide greater cleaning efficacy by allowing the head to flex, thereby allowing the bristles and other tooth cleaning elements to extend at various angles relative to one another. In one type of known flexible toothbrush head, the head is broken up into a plurality of segments that are flexible relative to one another and relative to the handle. However, the existing designs of many segmented toothbrush heads result in the head having either too much or not enough flexibility. Too much flexibility results in the head being unable to transmit sufficient pressure to the teeth or other oral surfaces via the bristles when the handle is subject to normal brushing forces. On the other hand, inadequate flexibility results in the segments (and thus the bristles) remaining substantially stationary, thereby defeating the purpose of having a flexible head.
More recently, the strategic arrangement and combination of tooth cleaning elements in the form of elastomeric cleaning elements and bristle tufts has become a more common way of improving cleaning efficiency. However, very little efforts have been made to coordinate the structure and arrangement of elastomeric cleaning elements on flexible toothbrush heads formed by a plurality of segments.
Elastomeric soft tissue cleaners, which are typically located on the rear surface of the toothbrush head, have also become quite popular. However, as with the tooth cleaning elements, very little effort has been expended to coordinate the structure of the soft tissue cleaner with the structure of flexible toothbrush heads utilizing a plurality of segments.